All posts tagged Rachel McAdams

If you love the story-telling possibilities of time travel, the last year was a good one. “X:Men Days of Future Past,”“Edge of Tomorrow,” and “Interstellar” have wonderfully mined time travel for compelling, clever stories. But, I’m not here to talk about those big-budget, highly marketed films that sci-fi fans caught in theaters. I’m here to let you in on a few smaller time-travel flicks that will surprise you and make you think and most of all, make the case that you don’t have to spend $100 million to make a great time-travel movie. Here’s five you should seek out, sometime in the near future. Read More »

After months of speculation, HBO announced today that Taylor Kitsch, Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly will join previously announced cast members Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell for the critically acclaimed show’s second season. The production is under way in California now. The plot of season 2 is described as three police officers and a career criminal navigating a “web of conspiracy” after a murder. Read More »

On Wednesday, the Internet celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Mean Girls, and boy, would Regina George have been proud (don’t worry, we wore pink).

Armed with an endless supply of priceless quotes, (“It’s like I have ESPN or something), GIFs (thank you, BuzzFeed) and memes (this one was everywhere today), Twitter was on fire with references to the ever-popular chick flick. Time even collected the most-tweeted Mean Girls quotes, which included “You go Glen Coco,” “So fetch,” and “It’s October 3rd.”

Here are some of the fetchest #MeanGirls10thAnniversary posts we saw today: Read More »

Filmmaker Anton Corbijn’s tense, slow-burn spy thriller “A Most Wanted Man” is very much an international affair. Based on British author John le Carré’s 2008 bestseller, the film was directed by the Dutch Corbijn, adapted by Australian writer Andrew Bovell, visually constructed by French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, and stars a talented cast of Americans, Germans, Russians, Iranians, Turks, and Canadians – many of whom were on hand to celebrate the film’s official premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival Sunday night in Park City, Utah.

“We tried to keep the film as authentic as possible,” said Corbijn, who joined his stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams and Willem Dafoe over a dinner of lamb meatballs and jidori chicken at Eveleigh at Show Lodge following the premiere. Le Carre’s setting of Hamburg, Germany, where some of the 9/11 terrorists lived and planned their attack, was inseparable from his spy story’s plot, so Corbijn spent 38 of his 40 shooting days filming around the city’s harbors, red light district and industrial zones. (The last two shooting days were in Berlin.) Read More »

Over the course of his career, German-born singer and songwriter Herbert Grönemeyer has sold more than 25 million albums, cementing his place as a musical superstar in his country.

Although he still considers himself a singer first, Grönemeyer has created a second career as a film composer. Known for his work on director Anton Corbijn‘s “The American,” Grönemeyer has once again teamed up with Corbijn for “A Most Wanted Man.”

Based on the book of the same name by John le Carré, the film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe, Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright and follows a Chechen-born Muslim who illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets entangled in the international war on terrorism.

Speakeasy sat down with the German composer (who also co-starred in the German language classic “Das Boot” in 1981) to talk about “A Most Wanted Man,” Hollywood, and meeting George Clooney. Read More »

Judging by the trailer, Malick’s latest is reminiscent of the philosophical “Tree of Life.” The voice of Bardem, who plays a priest, can be heard ruminating on love, as the camera zooms in on Affleck with both Kurylenko and McAdams, who play his two love interests. Interspersed with those close-ups are wide-angle shots of the sky, trees and sunlight. Apart from Bardem’s voice the actors don’t speak, but music swells throughout the trailer.

Although he’s been around for 124 years, Sherlock Holmes’ method of using equal parts wit and chance continues to prove beneficial, even when it comes to the fiercest of villains. In “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” Holmes (played by Robert Downey Jr.) takes on his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty (played by Jared Harris). Holmes is not alone: he recruits the recently wedded Dr. Watson (played by Jude Law).

Directed by Guy Ritchie, the 129-minute drama also stars Noomi Rapace (the first Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and Rachel McAdams who reprises her role.

In her ongoing quest to become the next Julia Roberts, Rachel McAdams stars in this light film about the producer of a morning news program. She’s joined by Harrison Ford as a cranky news vet and Diane Keaton as a perky host — two great actors, two potentially plum roles. But critics are divided about whether the film works (though all agree it’s no “Broadcast News”).

Adult romantic comedies have had a rough go of it at the movies lately. Films like “The Bounty Hunter” and “The Back-Up” plan were rightly DOA, and don’t even get us started on “Sex and the City 2″ (don’t take our work for it — the film currently scores less than 10% fresh on the review aggregater site Rotten Tomatoes). So Speakeasy was pleasantly surprised by the new trailer for the film “Morning Glory.” Rachel McAdams stars as the producer of little-watched morning show called “Daybreak,” and recruits Harrison Ford to join Diane Keaton as the show’s new co-anchor. Patrick Wilson also seems to work at the station, though his main purpose is to serve as McAdams’ love interest. Directed by the Roger Michell, who also helmed “Notting Hill,” the comedy also comes from Bad Robot, the production company of J.J. Abrams. Take a look below: Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.